Thursday, June 28, 2007

Many factors are weighed in during an interview. Technical proficiency and problem solving skills are usually pretty high up there. The ability to communicate and interact with people is also a must. Those factors pretty much sum up a huge portion of the hiring criteria. One smaller, but sometimes important factor is style of dress. What is acceptable dress for an interview at Google?

Shirt, tie, slacksI honestly don't think you can go wrong with this combination. It is dressy, yet you aren't wearing a jacket, so its right there in the middle. you don't want to look like you're coming off the street, nor do you want to look way too formal. Tread the middle.

Ask the HR personThis is actually a very easy solution. HR is usually pretty personal and easy to talk to. They can give you a recommendation of what the normal interview attire is, especially what's acceptable, what's too dressed, whats under-dressed.

The Google interview process is long and drawn-out, and I wanted to leave my current job now.

The Google job interview process is notorious for being a time consuming process. If you aren't busy studying and preparing for it, you are probably busy waiting to hear back from them. If you are actively looking for a job and already are getting job offers to interesting and appealing companies, one may have to consider the amount of time the Google interview process takes and if its worth waiting for. Despite that, I think most people are willing to wait to see what happen.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A perspective is very important when it comes to where you want to work. If you have worked a few years, you begin to have a feel for what your preferences are when it comes to work. Here is an interesting look from a former Microsoft employee who quit, founded a start up, then was acquired by Google. Supposedly Google is a very 'closed' off company compared to the transparency of Microsoft. This memo has been making rounds through out the Microsoft internal emailing list. It is quite long, but tries to explain a great deal about life at Google, including 20%, management structure, work hours, benefits, the food, etc. Take a read and get a good eye into Google work life.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

I've been doing a lot of interviewing these past few weeks, trying to find that dream job. There are a few companies I've talked to which I'd like to work for, and a few which I probably wouldn't want to. I recently was given an offer by health provider for a position in their IT group. This job would be a Java software engineering position. The interview itself wasn't too hard (compared to Google that is). In fact, thanks to my experience with Google, I've been a lot more confident and stronger in my interview skills. So I talked twice to them, once with their recruiter, basically to set up the interview and once at their offices. The on-site interview entailed talking to the project manager about my own work experience, technologies I've been involved with, stuff like that. After that a software guy came out with a print out of Java questions. He threw a wide variety of questions at me. Some I did good on, a few I couldn't get but in the end, they really liked me. A few days later I received an offer, which would represent a 10% raise for me. Part of me thought that it wasn't enough so I apologized and declined the offer stating that I would only accept the job if I was offered a 15% raise. This gave me more time to think about the position and if they offered me more, by the time they got back to me, I would have weighed all of the factors in. The decision making time is where I think "interviewing the interview" plays the most important part. Is this job the right fit for you? Even if you get an offer, should you just take it? When I go into an interview I am armed with a slew of questions that I want to ask them. I know when interviewing, it is always good to ask questions because companies seem to factor that in during the interview process, but that shouldn't be the end to it. Asking questions allows you to know more about the company and see if they fit what you are looking for.